Damon Albarn: Blur, Gorilla and other Fables

Damon Albarn: Blur, Gorilla and other Fables

Martin Roach, David Nolan

Language: English

Pages: 197

ISBN: 2:00333368

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub

First published in paperback by Independent Music Press in 2007
This revised and updated edition first published in 2015

DAMON ALBARN is the frontman of Blur and the face of Britpop. While his peers have gradually fallen by the wayside, Albarn has survived Britpop to completely reinvent himself as the mastermind behind the global phenomenon that is Gorillaz.

With his eclectic solo projects – such as the currently much-revered The Good, the Bad & the Queen – and his work with legends like Soul music icon Bobby Womack, he has proven again and again that he is one of British music's most respected, innovative and important personalities. And in 2015, with the release of The Magic Whip, Blur's first album for over a decade, Damon Albarn will take his place once more as an iconic jewel in the crown of the British music scene.

This fully up-to-date book the only available dedicated biography of Albarn covers his multiple musical personas in depth, with first-hand interviews by those close to Albarn in his formative years, as well as social and musical context that covers the Britpop era and Albarn s re-emergence as the Godfather to the iPod generation.

hated the place, he thought all Americans were wankers, and he fucking hated gigs, and he was trying to get us to agree. We just sat there listening, and I remember thinking, “we are not from the same planet as you” and then one of our band just opened the door, pointed him towards his own pissed-up dressing room and shoved him out.” Blur had been drinking copious amounts all day and matters deteriorated when Damon walked on and said, “We’re so fucking shit you may as well go home now.” A few

that fruit, or I’ve been tasted, you might say. But when you get down to it, you can’t beat a good pair of tits.” This laddishness was also apparent with various appearances at celebrity football matches, and perennial visits to The Good Mixer in Camden Town, official home to many of the drinking bands (including the ultimate lads’ band of the day, Oasis). Damon said to Select: “It’s necessary to have a comic fill to the whole politically correct revolution. That’s what the New Lad is … it’s a

all-conquering Parklife album – now the Mancunian band were a very serious threat to Blur’s British music supremacy. Their relationship with Blur had started off well, with Damon championing their cause several times, but things had soon started to turn sour. In The Good Mixer one night, Liam spotted Graham and harangued him so much he was thrown out – the ceaseless berating later continued in The Underworld Club. At an autumn 1994 radio interview in San Francisco, both bands were booked at a

of their appeal was a cause for concern. A favoured Alex James joke of the time was: “What’s forty yards long, has no pubes and goes Aaaaaaaah!? The front row of a Blur concert.” Alex – always happy to give Damon a run for his money in the pop crumpet stakes – had nailed the issue in his own inimitable way. The teen issue was especially galling to Graham, as Damon revealed in an interview with Esquire. “He’d got to the point where he could no longer go drinking at his local, The Good Mixer in

repeated when Albarn took Gorillaz to Glastonbury in July, the scene of his triumphant shows with Blur the previous year. Gorillaz’ headlining slot – as replacements for U2 after singer Bono was benched with a back injury – seemed to bring out the worst in critics. Many praised the visuals but panned the music, claiming that mass sections of the crowd walked out during the show. “While the highlights electrified the audience, we came crashing down quickly with the lengthy gaps between songs and